Employee Benefit Plans
 9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2014
Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Employee Benefit Plans
Employee Benefit Plans
Pension and Postretirement Plans. We sponsor both funded and unfunded domestic and foreign defined pension and other postretirement benefit plans, and defined contribution plans. Contributions to our plans were as follows:
 
Quarter Ended September 30,
 
Nine Months Ended September 30,
(Dollars in millions)
2014
 
2013
 
2014
 
2013
Defined benefit plans
$
60

 
$
21

 
$
204

 
$
72

Defined contribution plans
$
79

 
$
75

 
$
249

 
$
258


There were no contributions to our domestic defined benefit pension plans in the quarters and nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013. The following table illustrates the components of net periodic benefit cost for our defined pension and other postretirement benefit plans:
 
Pension Benefits
Quarter Ended September 30,
 
Other Postretirement Benefits
Quarter Ended September 30,
(Dollars in millions)
2014
 
2013
 
2014
 
2013
Service cost
$
122

 
$
142

 
$
1

 
$
1

Interest cost
381

 
343

 
10

 
9

Expected return on plan assets
(555
)
 
(526
)
 
—

 
—

Amortization
(3
)
 
(8
)
 
—

 
(2
)
Recognized actuarial net loss (gain)
108

 
237

 
(1
)
 
(1
)
Net settlement and curtailment loss
2

 
—

 
—

 
—

Total net periodic benefit cost
$
55

 
$
188

 
$
10

 
$
7


 
Pension Benefits
Nine Months Ended September 30,
 
Other Postretirement Benefits
Nine Months Ended September 30,
(Dollars in millions)
2014
 
2013
 
2014
 
2013
Service cost
$
366

 
$
428

 
$
3

 
$
3

Interest cost
1,141

 
1,029

 
30

 
28

Expected return on plan assets
(1,663
)
 
(1,579
)
 
—

 
—

Amortization
(7
)
 
(26
)
 
—

 
(8
)
Recognized actuarial net loss (gain)
322

 
717

 
(3
)
 
(3
)
Net settlement and curtailment loss (gain)
8

 
(17
)
 
—

 
—

Total net periodic benefit cost
$
167

 
$
552

 
$
30

 
$
20


Net settlement and curtailment loss (gain) for pension benefits includes curtailment gains of approximately $24 million related to, and recorded in, discontinued operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2013. There were no curtailment gains related to discontinued operations for the quarter ended September 30, 2013.